Our worst fears come true! Jamaican police have confirmed that Bob Woolmer was strangulated. An innocent life has been taken away - and for what! A result of a game or something more nasty? Absolutely disgusting! One can only hope that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are brought to justice. Just once, I'd like justice delivered by the kind of people who chanted "Death to Woolmer, Death to Inzamam" and who broke down Mahendra Dhoni's house!
Minnow-bashing continued yesterday with Pakistan and Sri Lanka comfortably winning their matches. A sombre end to Inzy's ODI career and perhaps his cricketing career. For although he has officially retired only from ODIs, knowing the machinations of Pakistani Cricket, he might very well be out of the squad the next time Pakistan play a Test match.
In today's matches, the Netherlands scored a consolation victory over fellow-associate nation Scotland. The Dutch bowled well to restrict Scotland to 136, a target they reached with plenty to spare. In the group B fixture, New Zealand defeated Canada by 114 runs. The Black Caps, batting first, built up a mammoth total of 363 featuring some huge hitting toward the end overs. However, in the absence of Shane Bond, their bowling looked ordinary. This may hurt the Kiwis in the knockout stages of the tournament.
So, now we move onto the most crucial match of the group stages - India vs Sri Lanka which of course is a must-win game for us. The Lankans have been talking themselves up quite a bit, whereas our team has been described as appearing to be disjointed. Frankly, I still fancy our chances against Sri Lanka. Sure, the Lankans have had a good time lately, but the opposition that they've faced hasn't been the greatest. Of course, they did trash Bangladesh and no one needs reminding of what the Bongs did to us! But as I stated in an earlier post, on a pitch with bounce and/or movement, I back India to win. And unlike some writers, I still don't believe that all fans should pay the price for a few lunatics' actions!
A disturbing article here by Cricinfo here. I sincerely hope that this is not true because if it is, then the last vestiges of innocence that the sport of Cricket could have claimed to have had will be lost! A sport that causes people to be killed due to the result of a match is a sport that most people would find very difficult to be associated with...
UPDATE: STAR News was conducting an interview with Mrs. Woolmer. The idiot conducting the interview was asking all sorts of insensitive questions about the book Bob was writing, whether it's been finished or not ad nauseum. Mrs. Woolmer seemed very composed and patient answering the never-ending questions being posed to her. One thing that Mrs. Woolmer did mention was that Bob would never have killed himself over a match, thus ruling out suicide and that she thought that the thought of him overdosing was ludicrous. This makes it clear that she believes that there is definitely something suspicious in his death.
The Pakistanis are understandbly shaken up by this news and don't want to play tomorrow's match against Zimbabwe. This may seem harsh for Zimbabwe, who are still in it with a chance to progress to the next round, but some things are more important than mere Cricket matches!
My predictions from yesterday were only partly right - South Africa did blast Scotland away. Kenya couldn't put it past New Zealand though, even after having the most ideal of starts to the match. I wonder if the pitch in the latter match had a lot of moisture on it prompting Kenya to put NZ in after winning the toss - in general, weaker teams are better placed if they bat first and put up a decent total. Oh well...
Moving on to tomorrow's matches. Pakistan vs Zimbabwe in normal times would have been a no-brainer, but with events as they have been in the lead-up to this match, I wouldn't rule out a Zimbabwe upset. However, a crushing Pakistan victory would be a fitting (if insignificant at this stage) tribute to the late Bob Woolmer, the true "Mr. Cricket" as one observer put it.
The second match of the day, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, is very interesting from an Indian perspective. If Bangladesh win tomorrow, India's match against Sri Lanka becomes a straight knock-out. However, in this scenario, India would not be able to carry any points forward to the next round - if they progress that is. In case Sri Lanka win tomorrow, we have to beat Sri Lanka and hope that our Net Run-Rate is higher than Bangladesh's at the end of the group matches. However, since Bangladesh are playing last in the group, they would be in a position to up their NRR to required levels in order to qualify.
The ideal scenario would of course be Bangladesh losing both it's remaining matches and India winning against Sri Lanka. This would mean India and Sri Lanka progessing with India carrying forward 2 points. However, looking at the performance levels of both Bangladesh and Bermuda, it looks unlikely that Bangladesh will lose their last group match. In which case, the best scenario would be for Sri Lanka to defeat Bangladesh tomorrow, but not by a huge margin. In our last match we should then ensure, in addition to winning the match of course, that our NRR is at least greater than Sri Lanka's. This way, we make sure of qualifying no matter what Bangladesh do. Of course, one point in favour of both India and Sri Lanka is the huge margins by which both teams have defeated Bermuda. I don't think that Bangladesh have it in them (yet) to score such a comprehensive victory even if it has to come against Bermuda!
Sunil Gavaskar has apologised to the late David Hookes' family for "uncalled for and inappropriate" remarks that he made to highlight the ills of the Australian team's behaviour.
However, Sunny did fire his latest salvo at the Aussies, pointing out to Rod Laver from yesteryears and today's Roger Federer as role-models in terms of behaviour. Of course, it all started off with Gavaskar complaining, yet again, about how the Australians' on-field behaviour did not make them popular among fans and that how Australia's latest losses had "gladdened the hearts" of the game's followers. This mushroomed into a whole diatribe from Ponting, a Mafia-like warning of sorts from Sunny and predictably (perhaps rightly too) rebukes from Allan Border, Darrenn Lehmann and Glenn McGrath.
Now, I'm glad that Gavaskar has apologised for his uncalled-for remarks. Referring to dead people is no way to make a point, no matter how valid it may be! If instead, Sunny had reminded Ponting of his drunken antics from Calcutta and Sydney, Ponting wouldn't have had a leg to stand on!
Tomorrow sees New Zealand and Kenya battling it out for top spot in group C whereas Scotland take on world no. 1 South Africa in group A. The latter match looks like a total mismatch - SA completely anhiliated Netherlands in their first match and I don't expect anything different in this fixture either. The SA batting line-up is awesome, especially against powder-puff bowling attacks. Their bowling has a sameness about it, although Shaun Pollock's stunning return to form has given them that extra edge, both in wicket-taking as well as in run-choking. My prediction, SA to win by a large margin.
The match between New Zealand and Kenya looks much more balanced, although some people bunch the Kenyans with the other "minnows." Frankly, I fancy Kenya's chances. NZ has top-order problems and if tomorrow is the day when their superbly consistent lower order fails, we could be in for a surprise. Bangladesh took out NZ in their warm-up match and if the pitch offers any turn, Kenya's spinners could cause huge problems for NZ. Although my head still says NZ, this time I'm going with my heart and choosing the underdog. I'm with Kenya on this, especially if they bat first and put up a decent total!
So to summarize:
SA wins over Scotland
Kenya wins over New Zealand
Rahul Dravid has said here that he expects Sehwag to "score more than one hundred for us." Geez! Why didn't Dravid inform Viru about this expectation earlier itself - maybe Viru just didn't know what was expected of him so far! Anyway, as I wrote earlier, hopefully Sehwag doesn't get back into his habit of lasting no longer at the crease than it takes for the spectators to get settled in their seats.
BTW, for our non-Hindi speaking readers, the title of the post literally translates to "This heart expects more from Sehwag!"
In this editorial, Khalid A-H Ansari, the Australia-residing, Indian editor of Mid-Day lauds India for beating all comers, including the Australians, in scoring the first 400+ total in World Cups. He further goes on to say that India should aim to score 400 in all their matches, noting the same points that I mentioned in this post viz: our bowling lacked penetration and that this could be our undoing against tougher opposition. Now, raising the bar to 400 is a good thought, but seeing that it's only happened 5 times in the history of ODIs, it's perhaps asking a bit too much at this stage. On the other hand, all of those 5 400+ scores have occurred in the past year or so - looking at the small grounds, none-too-menacing bowling attacks and power-packed batting line-ups, we can expect a couple of more scores of 400 or thereabouts!
This article from CricketNext mentions how Sehwag wasn't worried about his non-so-good form in the recent (and not-so-recent) past. I don't know how he does it, but I know that if I hadn't performed well in my job for about 2 years, I'd be just a bit worried about my place being taken by somebody else. I do think that, whether he was worried or not, Rahul Dravid will be plenty relieved. Having kept faith in his beleaguered (former) deputy, he would have liked seeing Sehwag playing such an innings in an important match. Let's hope that Viru doesn't get back to his single-digit scores for the next 9 matches or so!
